Laser, and other high resolution, dot matrix printing technologies have defined new resolution standards. Today, even documents produced for every day correspondence are printed in high resolution. Laser and other high resolution printers are currently capable of printing resolutions of 300.times.300, 600.times.600 and even 1200.times.1200 dots-per-inch (dpi). However, many software programs are not capable of generating text and images at these high resolutions. Consequently, lower resolution text and images are mapped onto a high resolution grid, where each pixel of the low resolution image is represented by several high resolution pixels. This is the basis of the "super pixel" concept.
Unfortunately, printing a low resolution image on a high resolution printer does not result in a lower number dots being printed. Instead, the printed image has jagged edged lines due to the super pixels. To compensate for the jagged and rough edges, several printer manufacturers have implemented resolution enhancing features which generally tend to average and smooth the jagged edges. These enhancements do not, however, significantly reduce the number of dots actually printed, so there is no change in the amount toner or ink applied.
Toner for today's laser printers is relatively expensive. A reduction in the amount of toner used for draft printing, would naturally result in reduced printing costs. Thus, it would be desirable, from a consumer's perspective, to be able to print drafts at significantly lower densities which result in a significant toner savings when presentation or letter quality printing is not necessary.